Kalmykia

MOSCOW -- Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, millionaire president of the tiny Russian republic of Kalmykia, has embraced capitalism. "Kalmykia will not be a republic but a corporation," he says. Two years ago, Ilyumzhinov was another young, up-and-coming Communist with an elite education. Then he started working for a Japanese company and began earning dollars. His conversion was swift and complete. "Let`s do business and talk about ideology later," he remembers resolving. Do business he did. After setting up gas and oil firms in his republic, running a newspaper and movie theaters, he is a millionaire at age 31. Not a ruble millionaire, either, but dollars.

One of Bobby Fischer's pet peeves was Russia's failure to pay royalties on his best-selling book My 60 Memorable Games. In 1995, FIDE president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov went to Budapest to hand Bobby $100,000 for past insults. "All night long we played chess by his rules [Fischer Random]. I gave him title to land in Kalmykia and our black caviar which pleased him very much." This scene is etched by Dutch GM Hans Ree in his book The Human Comedy of Chess: "Bobby stuffed the money into his coat pocket.

At the end of 1995, FIDE was in dire straits. The president of the beleaguered 155-nation chess body was ousted after he and a colleague drained more than half the treasury by quietly paying themselves $150,000 in "pensions" - a new FIDE tradition. Meanwhile, FIDE failed to raise money for its title bout. The victor was supposed to play a unification match with Garry Kasparov, the real world champ, who founded the rival Professional Chess Association. Enter Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, 34, the new FIDE czar.

With Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov in Beijing for talks on a multibillion-dollar oil pipeline, Russia on Tuesday rebuffed a planned visit by the Dalai Lama, saying it could upset relations with China. There are about 1 million Buddhists in Russia, and their hopes of seeing the Tibetan Buddhist leader, who last visited in 1994, did not stack up against Moscow's interest in revived relations with China. A Foreign Ministry statement described the Tibetan issue as highly sensitive and said Russia did not wish to interfere in China's internal affairs or upset talks between Beijing and the Dalai Lama.

The controversial 33rd World Team Championship was held in Elista, the capital of Kalmykia, a faraway corner of the Russian empire on the Caspian Sea. It's ruled with an iron fist by Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, an eccentric 36-year-old billionaire who is also president of FIDE, the world chess body. Human rights groups had urged a boycott of this Olympiad after Ilyumzhinovwas implicated in the murder of a leading opposition journalist. Two of his former aides confessed. "He's a criminal and a thief.

With Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov in Beijing for talks on a multibillion-dollar oil pipeline, Russia on Tuesday rebuffed a planned visit by the Dalai Lama, saying it could upset relations with China. There are about 1 million Buddhists in Russia, and their hopes of seeing the Tibetan Buddhist leader, who last visited in 1994, did not stack up against Moscow's interest in revived relations with China. A Foreign Ministry statement described the Tibetan issue as highly sensitive and said Russia did not wish to interfere in China's internal affairs or upset talks between Beijing and the Dalai Lama.

One of Bobby Fischer's pet peeves was Russia's failure to pay royalties on his best-selling book My 60 Memorable Games. In 1995, FIDE president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov went to Budapest to hand Bobby $100,000 for past insults. "All night long we played chess by his rules [Fischer Random]. I gave him title to land in Kalmykia and our black caviar which pleased him very much." This scene is etched by Dutch GM Hans Ree in his book The Human Comedy of Chess: "Bobby stuffed the money into his coat pocket.

Nobody ever heard of Kalmykia until its dictator assumed the helm of FIDE, the 160-nation chess body. The organization was nearly bankrupt when President Florencio Campomanes was bounced in the midst of his fourth term in 1995. Enter Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, 35, a self-described billionaire who rules Kalmykia with an iron fist. Once imprisoned as an Afghan spy, he was released when it was proven he had merely played chess with the son of Afghanistan's president. His own father is an engineer, his mother a veterinarian.

The latest casualty of chess politics is 22-year-old Gata Kamsky, America's premier player. He defected from the USSR in 1989 and is now ranked seventh in the world. Yet he announced plans to quit chess "because of unfair play" after snaring $562,500 on the losing end of a 1996 FIDE title match with defending champ Anatoly Karpov, 45, whom he calls "a quiet snake."Now Gata plans to study medicine. His feisty father threatened to kill a British rival and accused PCA champ Garry Kasparov of poisoning their food.

When a toast was proposed to the world champion a century ago, both Steinitz and Zukertort stood up! But one crown won't fit two egos. In 1975 Anatoly Karpov took the crown by default from Bobby Fischer, who still insists he is king. Will the real champion please rise? Today Gary Kasparov, 33, and his nemesis Karpov, 45, tower above their rivals. Fans were treated to the most savage fight in chess history in the course of five K-K bouts. The first one lasted six months but was annulled when Karpov, though ahead, was on the verge of a breakdown after losing two games in a row. Kasparov won their next two matches, drew the fourth and took the fifth.

The controversial 33rd World Team Championship was held in Elista, the capital of Kalmykia, a faraway corner of the Russian empire on the Caspian Sea. It's ruled with an iron fist by Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, an eccentric 36-year-old billionaire who is also president of FIDE, the world chess body. Human rights groups had urged a boycott of this Olympiad after Ilyumzhinovwas implicated in the murder of a leading opposition journalist. Two of his former aides confessed. "He's a criminal and a thief.

Nobody ever heard of Kalmykia until its dictator assumed the helm of FIDE, the 160-nation chess body. The organization was nearly bankrupt when President Florencio Campomanes was bounced in the midst of his fourth term in 1995. Enter Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, 35, a self-described billionaire who rules Kalmykia with an iron fist. Once imprisoned as an Afghan spy, he was released when it was proven he had merely played chess with the son of Afghanistan's president. His own father is an engineer, his mother a veterinarian.

The latest casualty of chess politics is 22-year-old Gata Kamsky, America's premier player. He defected from the USSR in 1989 and is now ranked seventh in the world. Yet he announced plans to quit chess "because of unfair play" after snaring $562,500 on the losing end of a 1996 FIDE title match with defending champ Anatoly Karpov, 45, whom he calls "a quiet snake."Now Gata plans to study medicine. His feisty father threatened to kill a British rival and accused PCA champ Garry Kasparov of poisoning their food.

At the end of 1995, FIDE was in dire straits. The president of the beleaguered 155-nation chess body was ousted after he and a colleague drained more than half the treasury by quietly paying themselves $150,000 in "pensions" - a new FIDE tradition. Meanwhile, FIDE failed to raise money for its title bout. The victor was supposed to play a unification match with Garry Kasparov, the real world champ, who founded the rival Professional Chess Association. Enter Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, 34, the new FIDE czar.

MOSCOW -- Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, millionaire president of the tiny Russian republic of Kalmykia, has embraced capitalism. "Kalmykia will not be a republic but a corporation," he says. Two years ago, Ilyumzhinov was another young, up-and-coming Communist with an elite education. Then he started working for a Japanese company and began earning dollars. His conversion was swift and complete. "Let`s do business and talk about ideology later," he remembers resolving. Do business he did. After setting up gas and oil firms in his republic, running a newspaper and movie theaters, he is a millionaire at age 31. Not a ruble millionaire, either, but dollars.

On Thursday at the World Chess Championships in the Russian Republic of Kalmykia, the player from Bulgaria charged that the player from Russia was taking too many bathroom breaks, more than 50 a game. He suggested that his opponent was running to the toilet, the only area used by the players not monitored by cameras, to get illegal assistance, presumably from a computer. At first, the bathroom accusation seemed like one in a long line of charges that have bedeviled international chess matches over decades.